


Static

by Servetolive



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Bleak, M/M, Pseudo-Incest, Rough Sex, Slash, Tragedy, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2017-08-12
Packaged: 2018-12-14 06:49:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11777718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Servetolive/pseuds/Servetolive
Summary: Data and Lore in control of the Enterprise. Originally posted on Livejournal in August 2010.





	Static

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted [here](http://servetolive.livejournal.com/27871.html) on LJ. No changes have been made. I plan on rewriting this someday, but *Gowron* nOt tOdaY. 
> 
> A Russian version has been translated [here](https://ficbook.net/readfic/4914616), and is done faithfully so. *In fact, it may read better in Russian than English...* 
> 
> Additionally, there has been lovely art made for this piece by the talented Gorrlaus. You can view it [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4251060).

Data found the ship's deadening silence unnerving.

If he stood still, he could hear nothing; nothing at all above the low, soft hum of the ship's processes functioning minimally. If he strained his ears, he could even hear his own pulse.

Any further, and he could hear his brother, decks above him, stomping through the dead bodies--perhaps, skipping daintily around them with a dance in his step and a tune in his head--in search of both the captain and first officer.

Or, to be more precise, their right hands.

He kept his eyes forward as he stepped around the corpses, careful not to disturb any of them, as though they were merely asleep. Who he was walking over, which few survived; there was no way to know. And he himself had no interest in reviewing any logs that might tell him.

Around a particular turbolift, several bodies piled up, some whose hands clutched at the door in frightened positions of death. Until something was done about this, navigating the ship would be nearly impossible. The bodies hadn't bloated yet; it had only been twelve hours since the last of them had died, but if there was anything he knew about his brother, it was that he couldn't stand the smell of humans. 

_"Brother dear,"_ Lore's voice drifted into the hallway through the comm, so quiet and buttery that he hadn't even noticed that intership communications had been re-established. 

"Lore."

_"Whatcha doin'?"_

"We agreed to split up and examine each deck of the ship, to determine who survived and who did not."

_"Are you all done?"_

Data found a space that was unoccupied... relatively. He leaned against the wall and slid down it until he sat, looking well among company beside the stiff science officers that surrounded him.

He thought about the five decks that he hadn't checked, about how slowly he dragged his feet through the corridors, unmotivated.

"Yes. I have found no survivors."

_"Meet me up on the bridge then, why don'tcha?"_

Without acknowledging, Data stood and set to work pulling the bodies away from the turbolift.

\--  
Interface panels were cracked in some places, completely blank in others. Screens blipped. Wires hung from above. Occasionally, sparks sprayed from bulkheads and stations. 

Bounding through the crowded hallways clad in a uniform that mirrored his brother's, Lore came across some optical cable that hung from one such gap in a bulkhead and tore it out. Sparks rained down on him and the bodies.

An homage to the ship's former captain, he hummed _Au Clair de Lune_ as he jump-roped his way to the bridge, his pockets bulging.

If one of his feet inadvertantly landed on a chest or a stomach, he did not think twice about regarding the stiff with a nod and saying, "Oh, excuse me!" before continuing on his way.

\--

"Looks like it's just us.... brother-mine," Lore said from his place in the captain's chair, twisting his head so that his voice would reach Data's ears.

Data, working at tactical, said nothing in response. Rather, he robotically put out information he received from his station (to no one in particular), his brow deeply furrowed.

"Life support is still offline. Torpedos are at one-hundred-percent. Shields are down. We are currently not moving at warp speed. Or any speed, for that matter."

 _It is all pointless,_ he thought to himself after the fact, suddenly feeling very stupid. His hands left the console and he spun on his heel to face science.

Lore left the chair and jumped up the steps to approach Data from behind. Slowly, his arms encircled his brother's waist. He felt the younger android flinch at his touch, but tightened his hold anyway.

"So quiet now," he breathed into his sibling's ear. "Not a single life form on board."

If Data could hear, he made no indication, but went on punching non-functional buttons at the science station and receiving either dead tones as a response or no response at all.

"What are we going to do to occupy our time, now that there's nobody left to mess around with?"

Before Lore's tongue made contact with the nape of Data's neck, Data shrugged his brother off of him and continued to at least pretend that he was busy. "Looks like you are the only one who needs to occupy one's time, brother-mine," he half-mumbled, his eyes remaining glued to the panels, a dark overcast clouding his expression.

Half-shocked, Lore dropped his arms and stepped back.

"... Fuck _you_ , then."

\--

Data had not intended to come across any life onboard the Enterprise; but, as always, curiosity had won over logic.  
He walked to the corner of sickbay from which feeble life signs emitted, intentionally blurring his peripheral vision to prevent the possibility of him catching a glimpse of bright red out of the corner of his eye.

Hyposprays littered the area along with hands and feet, still and pale as though a young girl had taken her rage out on her play house, disassembling the limbs of her dolls to be strewn about the room. 

The young science officer probably could not truly make out the details on his face. His puffy eyes remained half-closed, pupils twitching beneath the eyelids. A dry, crackling sound emitted from his throat. 

Kneeling, Data checked his pulse. It was slow and unsteady, decreasing with each passing moment. He was going to die.

"C...Ccc.... C.....mm."

Data looked down at the ensign, face smooth as stone and just as featureless.

"Do not move."

He returned thirty seconds later with a hypospray in his hand. The ensign continued to make unintelligble sounds with the first two consonants in Data's formal title.

"This will subdue the pain," he said, his voice a flat line.

As gently as his functions allowed, he cradled the right side of the young man's face with one soft, delicate hand, and used the other to inject the sedative into his jugular.

He jerked, his hand jolting upwards to grab the gold fabric of Data's arm. Tenderly, Data removed the hand from his person and placed it neatly in the officer's lap, soundlessly bringing a single digit to his own lips.

After fifteen seconds, the gurgling sounds gave way to a slow, quiet snore. The lids of the ensign's eyes slid shut slowly as he fell into a brief slumber.

Unceremoniously, Data placed his other hand on the opposite side of the man's head and twisted it, quickly.

The snap echoed for minutes, it seemed. So did the sickening sound of the dead man's body dropping to the floor from Data's hands.

" _Nicely_ done, brother." 

Lore's awe-struck voice jolted through Data and he stood instantly, spinning on his heels to give his grinning brother a look that would have terrified even the Captain--were he alive.

He could have said something. _Anything_ would have done well. Even one of the abominable swear words that Lore so often used. He could have _done_ something, even: cracked a fist across that stiff jaw, or snapped his neck in the same way he had snapped the science officer's.

He approached his brother as if he planned to do so, standing nose to nose with him. Lore did not back down, but lifted his chin slihtly, his grin fading smoothly into a look of apprehension and budding fury. His tongue prodded the inside of his cheeks, momentarily, as if tasting the words before he unleashed them.

"Just what," he hissed, barely above whispering. "the _fuck_ are you looking at?"

Jaw set in a manner identical to his twin's, Data stood for one-point three seconds longer before walking past Lore, each step becoming lighter than the last before breaking into full run.

\--

Body disposal began under Lore's direction at 0700 that morning. It was not an order that Data could refuse to comply with, even though he would have been content to stay amongst the rotting bags of flesh and let the putrid air drive both him and Lore mad.

Being the only two capable creatures on the entire ship, it had taken longer than he'd hoped and was more gut-wrenching than he could ever imagine. He ran a program that would obscure his vision just enough so that details and facial features went unnoticed--but he could not keep himself from counting the three-hundred sixy-seven bodies the he himself had relocated to the cargo bay.

As he glared out at the oscillating stars from behind the glass of the observation lounge, arms folded and chin tucked down, he observed that the ship seemed even quieter without the lifeless vessels. 

He did not start at the hiss of the door as it slid open, nor did he turn to see his brother.

Data wondered if Lore was intentionally trying to make as little noise as possible as he approached his brother's side; if he were projecting some bullshit attempt at humility or sympathy for Data's own mixed feelings. Results of his hypothesis were inconclusive.

Lore said nothing as he stood next to him, appearing to gaze out at the same stars his sibling did. His brother seemed grateful for his silence.

Minutes passed before Data turned to Lore and began talking; an action so sudden in the still, empty vacuum of the ship's atmosphere that Lore seemed visibly surprised.

"How can you do it?" Data's expression--confounded, disturbed, angry, curious--clashed with Lore's own grin of ambiguity, the smile that seemed to mock _Mona Lisa's._ "Father equipped you with a morality program."

"Yes." Lore stared out the window. "He did."

"Do you feel _nothing?_ "

"It depends on what you're talking about." He turned to face Data, almost completely closing the small gap between them. "For the humans?" he asked, voice hovering between whisper and raging growl. "As you said, _nothing._ "

Data's weight shifted on another foot, uncomfortably. 

"For you? Different story."

"I regret that you feel differently towards me than you do for 'the humans.'" Data spat the word 'humans' as his brother did, turning his attention back to the frontier before them. 

"I'm sure you do, brother." Lore's voice was gentle, and calming. Data found himself exhaling, releasing some kind of built-up pressure in his chest as the air left his systems.

"But you are not one of them," his older brother finished.

Another eternity of silence (forty-five point zero-three seconds, to be exact) passed between them before Data spoke again.

"I... _abhor_ you."

Amused, Lore turned partway to examine his brother.

"You... _abhor_ me?"

"... Yes. It is a strange, powerful, and... _repulsive_ feeling. I hate you. I hate everything you are. Yet," he stepped forward peered into his brother's eyes, his own flickering as though he were searching through Lore's memory banks for something he himself did not possess.

"You fascinate me."

"And why is that?"

"... You represent everything that I have ever desired to be."

They stood for minutes, their mirrored, golden eyes transmitting intangible messages to each other, corneae flitting about until all implications were clear and passed directly into their positronic nets.

Their pupils dilated.

"Intriguing," Lore breathed, the ice in his voice slicing through the still air.

"I despise everything _you_ represent."

The sound of Lore's gloved hand gripping the hair in the sensitive area just above Data's neck obliterated whatever serenity was left of the silence that was quickly dissipating from the room.

"And yet," he growled, baring his teeth against Data's exposed throat. "I want you."

The kiss came more like a brutal attack than a manifestation of love or affection--Lore's teeth nearly pierced Data's lips, and there was no option aside from compliance as the prototype sucked Data's tongue into his own mouth. 

The kiss was oily, slick, _torn._ In its brief moment, Data closed his eyes and felt like he could _taste_ his brother's core--taste who he was, in all of his black, silken, vulgar glory. Lore nipped at Data's tongue until the familar flavor of chemical nutrients tinged the kiss, pulling away just as Data began to explore his brother's mouth with equal fervor. Data's form of complaint was to lean after Lore's mouth, barely audible moans trickling from his lips. 

A quick hand seized one of his brother's wrists and flung him down against the table behind them. Small warning chimes erupted in Data's head, and still, he lifted his neck up so that he could watch his brother remove the plain, black long-sleeved tunic from his body and undo the fly of his regulation Starfleet trousers in two fluid movements.

He did not help Lore in the process of removing his own clothes, but simply allowed him to fumble with them impatiently until he lost his composure and tore them off, buttons and latex littering the table.

In the brief, five seconds in which neither android moved, he took in the visual of his brother's silhouetted, half-naked form; the descending rim of his pants exposing his hips, and the blaze of distant galaxies' suns bouncing off of flawless, golden skin where Data could see it.

Almost absently, one of his hands drifted to his lower regions, stroking the leaking head of his cock with a thumb.  
He was not given a second chance to move into a more comfortable position--one that did not require such a high arch in his back as his entire torso and buttocks rested on the surface--before Lore took his place between Data's legs, leaned down and pressed his hot mouth against the android's exposed belly.

Shudders coursed through Data's body as he arched upward into his brother's mouth, closing his eyes and allowing the path Lore's tongue took to surprise him. A wet trail glided around his navel and down the left side of his pubic region, ending as Lore closed his teeth against the outside of Data's pelvic bone. The bite consumed Data; he jerked violently upward, his mouth emitting sounds that even Lore had never heard before.

The reactions were inspiring. Lore lifted his torso and hurriedly pushed the top of his trousers down several inches more, his cock springing from the opening. Data lifted himself up on his forearms so that he could observe his brother smoothing pre-come over both of their organs with one hand and tease Data's opening with the slick finger of another.

"We are..." a sharp intake of air as the pad of Lore's thumb slides across the head of his cock. Lore widened his smile at the reaction, shaking misplaced hair out of his eyes.

"... identical."

_So should our pleasure be._

The words were not thought of--they simply existed, its syllables emerging in his head without provocation.  
Lore grabbed hold of Data's calves and pulled him forward so that his midsection remained unsupported between his brother's thighs and the table, and held himself in position. 

The slick, wet pressure of his dick against Data's orifice drew deep, anxious breaths from the latter, and he rolled his head back, his fingernails carving rugged lines into the table's metal surface.

"Hhh...ahh..."

"Say it." The look in Lore's glowing eyes were the point end to the needle-like quality of voice. He pushed in about a millimeter more and stayed, tantalizing Data.

"I..."

The words were clear in his head. _I am yours._

He could feel the muscle expanding inside of him, stretching him. Again, he cried out.

"Ah..."

_Every part of me._

There was nothing that did not appeal to Data as truth in the statement. In his own voice, he could hear it repeating, layering on top of itself. It was not deniable. It was also not explainable. It was simply a _fact,_ something obvious that he could not believe he was unaware of prior to that moment.

Lore moved in and out of him excruciatingly slow, first by millimeters and then by centimeters. Every subtle movement inside Data caused a spasm of some sort and set off another layer of the mantra.

_EverypartofmeisyoursIamyourseverypartofmeisyoursIamyourseverypartofme_

To distract himself, Data looked past Lore and out of the observation glass. For a short moment he marveled at the almost perfectly clear reflection of his legs and feet, spread apart as if to frame his brother's sculpted back and ass muscles as he rolled in and out of Data. The diversion did not last long--the sound of Lore's palm slamming down cacophonously next to Data's right ear had the words flooding his ears again, amplifying with every ravishing thrust deeper inside of him.

 _"Say it!_ " The words would have stung if they were corporeal. With no warning, Lore pulled his thighs further forward so that their skin was flush together and leaned down, one hand on either side of Data's head.

"E... I..."

Eyes closed and brow furrowed, Data braced himself against the table as Lore fucked him, exponentially faster and harder with each second. He could do the math if he wanted to; calculate pressure or velocity or speed, but with each passing nanosecond, these things made less and less sense to him. 

Data's hands reached up suddenly, grabbing hold of Lore's hair and pulling him down, causing his sibling to cry out in surprise. He mirrored Lore's own trademark smile, dripping with condescension and transgressive lust. 

_"Fuck me."_

As if his brother had uttered some magic word, Lore reacted to the statement by thrusting himself completely into Data, the latter lurching upward, mouth open.

Through lidded eyes, he could see the stars blurring together with the words, like black and white static. White noise. A frequency pitch too high.

The last thing Data claimed to remember before his orgasm washed over him and shut down his systems was releasing the hold on his brother. He couldn't recall hearing himself screaming and writhing as Lore reached his core; didn't connect the throbbing ache in his scalp with how he had arched his back painfully and grabbed fistfuls of his own hair as he came violently, his semen spurting in ribbons across Lore's chest.

Such was a disappointment to Lore.

\--

Of course, to Lore, it was just as well that Data had forgotten that last moments of their most iconic coupling to date: it simply gave Lore the opportunity to start over; relish it all from ground up.

It had occurred to him that perhaps Data _hadn't_ forgotten, that he had indeed remembered and could relive every second that happened between them in the observation lounge. Lore couldn't bring himself to ask--it might obstruct the progress he has made so far.

Since then, they tore through the empty halls of the _Enterprise_ like brothers, shirts removed, hair ruffled, and any concept of decency or modesty or humanity completely dissolved. An innocent game of tag would lead to a rough tackle through a bulkhead, followed by an eruption of laughter and succeeded by a cyclone of fingers and tongues and saliva. 

The klaxons still blared and shrouded the writhing figures in a bloody hue, but by the end of the second week, they had learned to ignore it.

\--

Data learned quickly that Lore was a sore loser and a cheat. Poker games ended with cards and chips scattered on the floor, each android struggling for dominance over the other at the bar of Ten-Forward. 

Whenever Lore looked at his brother, wide-eyed and enchanted as though he were the younger sibling, strange sensations would rush into his neural net. He saw Data bathed in a new light--one that accented the coarse edges around his demure self, one that no longer watched undesirable events unfold before his eyes, unblinking.  
Whatever it was that was changing in Data was changing in Lore, as well.

It was after a fist fight on the bridge regarding the rights to the captain's chair that Lore fully realized what it was that suddenly made his brother so much more appealing. 

"Get up," Data had said firmly, as he power-walked down the steps and appeared at Lore's side.

Lore glared up at his younger brother, making a face as though he had genuinely misunderstood him. "... _What?_ "

" _Get. Up._ Out of the chair."

"... The hell? Why?"

"Without questioning your authority, I have allowed you to take command of this vessel and simply observed your conduct. I do not believe your talents are compatible with the role of captain."

The condescending tone in his voice infuriated Lore. He kept his eyes fixed to Data's, unflinching. "... Don't talk to me like I'm one of your junior officers, okay?"

"However, I do find you competent enough to man tactical--"

"Don't patronize me either, brother. I think you've forgotten whose idea this whole thing was in the first place." 

It wasn't a secession, but Lore pushed himself up out of the chair and headed for the turbolift to his left. Data followed him.

"I was not patronizing you, Lore. But it has become apparent to me that you lack the competency required for the role of ship's captain."

"Oh, so now you're saying I'm stupid?"

"Did those words come out of my mouth?"

With a curt sigh and a roll of his eyes, Lore attempted to step onto the turbolift; his path was suddenly obstructed by the loud sound of Data's hand slamming into the wall beside him, barring his progression.

"What the _fuck._ "

"We are not finished discussing this matter," Data said in his quiet, urgent voice.

"Uh, actually, we _are._ I'm not giving up the captain's chair."

"I am asking that you reconsider."

"Why do you want the captain's chair so badly all of a sudden?" Lore moved away from the turbolift, leaning in closer to his brother as though he wanted Data to literally consume his words. 

"You haven't had a problem with me commanding the _Enterprise_ before. Are you trying to make up for some issue in your career before?"

Lore didn't wait for his brother to answer.

"Yeah, I bet that's it. Damn, brother. Maybe you should have killed them a long time ago, if that's what it'd take for you to command a sh--"

Pain receptors burst at the sudden contact with Data's knuckles; he had moved so quickly that Lore couldn't pre-empt or evade the backhand. He was on the floor for a half-second before flipping back onto his feet and cracking the meat of his palm up against Data's nose.

Barely functioning interfaces sizzled and hissed as they threw each other into them. Both knew that neither could gain any kind of advantage over each other by engaging in fisticuffs, but the heat of rage burned through their sensors. Chimes similar to the _Enterprise's_ klaxons sounded in their heads as the siblings clasped hands around each others necks, crushing the servos there.

Lore clenched his teeth until he thought he was going to rupture his jaw. His brother's face, though strained, remained complacent, calm; unchanged by the fact that his brother could disfigure him in the next fifteen seconds if he didn't release his hold.

Then, Data's left eye twitched; his mouth opening slightly. Distracted by the flash of emotion, Lore unwittingly loosened his grip, giving Data the necessary window of opportunity that he need to slam his forehead into his brother's septum.

"Augh!" Lore cried out as he reeled back, his vision momentarily obscured. Unexpectedly, Data used this temporary handicap to exploit the situation. 

Bent over the tactical station, Lore looked down at Picard's old place on the deck as Data's mouth roamed hungrily across the smooth, golden contours of his back. The panels cracked as Data flipped Lore over, roughly, and continued his descent down the front of his brother's body. He had to smile, looking at the bridge upside-down as his brother teased his balls with the tip of his tongue. Lore allowed his hands to tangle themselves in Data's head.

Data was _no_ one's puppet, now. Not his, not Starfleet's, not Picard's, not the _Enterprise's._

The former Starfleet officer became confused when, as he sucked, the familiar sighing sounds of pleasure and ecstasy were replaced by a long fit of laughter.

\--

They fucked in a random room each night, surrounded by treasures that were not theirs.  
And why shouldn't they? The ship itself was theirs now, all of it. They were free to claim these belongings' as their own. It was even Lore's suggestion that they do so by christening them with their lewd acts.

One such room that they occupied belonged to a female that had an interesting obsession with mirrors, having replicated about eight large ones total and placing them strategically against every bulkhead visible from her bedroom, including the ceiling. They proved to be useful tools as they experimented with the coupling methods of various worlds.

_We're changing._

Lore breathed heavily as he split the bamboo with his brother, his left thumb slipping into Data's mouth. 

_I can feel it._

Data knew that an expression of pleasure--any kind, no matter how minute--could send his brother over the edge quicker than intended. He had turned off his sexual programming at Lore's suggestion, and had to continuously remind himself not to give _too much_ , and to stay in control of his functions for as long as possible.  
Lore lurched forward and moaned as he heard his brother's voice in his head.

_Does change frighten you, brother?_

Data's voice did not sound any different in his head than it did at any other time, but it stirred something in Lore that he couldn't quite explain; a feeling that he would never be able to shake from his neural net for as long as he lived.

The word "love" was programmed into Lore's head. To date, there hadn't been a single time he had used it; not to his mother, and not to old Often Wrong.

They had switched positions twice before Lore answered. By then, he had given himself over to his brother and was straddling him, his fingers tracing uncharted constellations across Data's neck and chest.

It had taken some getting used to, allowing his brother to take him; yet, there was a small, growing part of him that wouldn't want it any other way. He kept reminding himself that he needed to crush this spreading desire to be dominated by his less-than-perfect sibling, to stop admiring his recent passage into the world of emotions and godliness and retain some of the fucking dignity and pride that had allowed him to make it this far.

He turned his neck to watch their joined bodies in the mirror behind him, the sight of his own sculpted muscles converging beneath the bioplast compelling him to work his hips faster and lean his torso forward so that he can clasp Data's wrists together. 

Of course the word 'love' was programmed into him. He didn't use it. Didn't _want_ to. Ever.

_... This change does._

He didn't intend to start now.

\--

"Captain," the words felt strange coming out of Lore's mouth, "That Federation vessel is hailing us."

Data sat in his chair uncomfortably--it was the first time in many days that he had been fully clothed. He pulled his regulation trousers down at the thighs and adjusted the collar of his top as though his appearance mattered at all: his uniform was filthy; wrinkled.

"Patch through audio only."

The familiar, irritated voice of Captain Jellico vibrated through the conn.

"To whomever is in command of Federation Starship USS Enterprise-D, this is Captain Jellico of the USS Drake. Our sensors indicate that despite there being no lifeforms on board, the vessel has maintained an on-and-off speed of warp two. Please confirm. And, confirm that Lietenant Commander Data is still active."

He waited, his mouth pressed against the first knuckle of his forefinger. "Hm. Do you believe we are ready for a visual confrontation, brother?"

Lore shrugged. "I could give a damn; really."

Data cocked his head, a slight furrowing in his brow. "I thought you to be the theatrical type."  
Already slicking his hair back, Lore moved from his place at tactical to sit in the first officer's chair next to his brother. "Well, since you put it that way..."

"On screen."

There was Jellico's troubled face, his eyes moving back and forth between Data and the black-clad Lore. 

"... Commander Data?"

"Greetings, Captain Jellico. Rather, 'long time no see,' as humans tend to say."

Jellico shook his head rapidly. "... I don't understand. Where is Captain Picard?"

"The captain is dead."

The way Data delivered the news, coupled with the dawning realization on Jellico's face gave Lore a chilling sensation that raced up and down his spine. 

"... Dead? And the rest of the crew?"

"Also dead, I am afraid. What is the purpose of your communication, sir?"

For Lore, it was like watching an old film. At every new bit of information Data gave the captain, his old, grey eyebrows flared up and he set his jaw.

"Who is that sitting next to you, Commander?"

"Ah, yes," Data said suddenly, bringing his palm to rest on Lore's shoulder. "Excuse me, Captain; I have been impolite. This is Lore, my first officer _and_ brother."

Smirking, Lore gave him a sarcastic salute. "At your service, sir."

"... Your brother, the wanted space pirate Lore, is now your first officer?" 

"What do you expect, Captain Jellico?" Lore chimed in. "We're uh..." he craned his neck to examine the empty bridge around him, "kind of short-staffed these days."

By the look on his face, patience was bleeding out of Jellico's system.

"Commander Data," he said, lifting his chin up. "I am transporting a security team to the _Enterprise_ immediately and engaging a tractor beam to tow the ship to the nearest Starbase, where we can conduct a full investigation on what the hell went on there. I urge that you in _no_ way interfere with th--"

Out of habit, perhaps, Data made a cutting motion across his neck with his fingers, and Lore severed the comlink. 

Data stood and repositioned himself at the helm. "Shields, Lore."

"Gotcha." Lore bounded over the rail that seperated the bridge from tactical and got to work. "Shields are at eighty-seven percent, following the repairs we made a week ago. It's not perfect, but it should deflect whatever a _Wambundu_ -class light cruiser can throw at us, right?"

"Very good. I am plotting a course to the Delta Quadrant at a speed of warp eight."

"The _Delta Quadrant_?" Lore momentarily glanced up from his station. "What for?"

"Nobody, not even the Borg, can bother us there."

The two exchanged a look that only they could decipher.

"Course plotted, sir."

The order came from Data's lips heavily accented as he invoked his former CO's spectre, throwing his index finger foreward.

_"Engage."_

\--

They were quite sure that the casualties the _Drake_ had suffered from being clipped as they made their escape were not detrimental to her operation. They were a long shot from caring, anyway. As long as the _Drake_ was distracted enough not to immediately follow them or call for reinforcements before they changed bearings again, all would be well.

In the meantime, they celebrated on the main bridge itself, taking advantage of a previously unheard of situation where the deck would be otherwise totally empty.

It was Lore who had initiated it, slinking down from his place at tactical to stand before a pensive Data, whose chin rested upon interlocked fingers. They exchanged looks, Lore's malicious smile crossing Data's benign glare upward, before Lore lowered himself, one knee at a time, between Data's open legs. He did not break eye contact with his brother.

"Do you not think now to be an unusual time to initiate a sexual act, Lore?" Data said, genuinely curious as his older brother worked on the thirteen buttons of his fly.

Lore grinned up at him, and chose to say nothing--a strange action (or lack there of) for his character. Finally, he found what he had wanted buried beneath layers of stiff, unpressed fabric and leaned down.

The cock in his mouth was soft, and it was not surprising to Lore that it took some 'special techniques' to bring it to life--Data was in command mode still, rigid and formal in his chair. Data squirmed uncomfortably for a few minutes before allowing himself to slide down and bring his hands up behind Lore's ears, weaving them into his hair.

Soon after his bottom lip fell open and the first gasp escaped his mouth, the confines of the chair became too restrictive for Data's taste and he stood, keeping one hand at the back of his older brother's head.

On his knees, Lore fixed his eyes onto those of ex-lieutenant commander as he fucked his mouth. Fully aware of the open space displayed behind them, and the burn of the omni-present stars on his back, his own cock hardened between his thighs; he slid one hand down between them to accomodate while the other stayed wrapped around his brother's shaft.

 _Yes,_ Lore thought as the head of his brother's sex hit the back of his throat, repeatedly. He tried crushing the next thought before it formed and became reality, but failed. 

_I could do this all fucking day and night._

Data did not avert his eyes as he came; nor did Lore as he opened his mouth and allowed the still-hard organ and its fluids slide out, leaving a wet trail as it grazed his cheek.

Data brought one of his hands up to cup Lore's chin, and they stayed like so for minutes, as if analyzing the millions of processes that were occurring in their respective minds. A thumb smeared some residue left at the left corner of Lore's mouth further onto his cheek.

"That will be all... _ensign_ ," Data said demurely as he stuffed himself back into his pants and returned to the captain's chair without bothering to fasten any of his buttons. He crossed his legs to conceal himself.

Feeling strangely, Lore stayed on his knees for a moment longer, noting Data's aversion to any further eye contact. 

"Aye, sir," he found himself murmuring before wiping his face on his black sleeve and returning to tactical.

\--

He was in a section of the ship that they hadn't bothered clearing, due its environmental conditions--it would have been ridiculous anyway, even for two androids, to pull up all these frozen bodies and haul them to the cargo bay.  
It's not like they could putrify here, in zero-celsius.

He stepped over the glass, snow covered bodies, strangely reminded of one of his first missions with the _Enterprise._ He was fortunate that there were no faces visible for him to obscure--he wouldn't have been able to see anything at all, then.

He found the room that Lore had referenced to and entered, becoming apprehensive immediately: he could barely make out what was furniture and what were once people; how would he know where to find them? Had he hidden them somewhere?

No, apparently not, he thought as the icy, white blobs of... whatever it looked like jumped out at him. He ran a sensor scan with his tricorder and established that they were of humans' organic composition; severed at the wrist, malleable after slow thawing.

It required some effort to take the larger hand off of the otherwise empty shelf first. When he succeeded, it broke free with a 'snap,' and he rotated the extremity in his hand.

_Commander Riker._

The smaller one was easier to remove, but much more fragile--rather than risk its destruction, Data used his phaser to melt the ice around it, and simply let it fall into his hands.

_The captain._

He turned on his nerve receptors and let the ice soak into his bones.

Shivering, he held the hands close to him, the frozen fingers resting upon his lips.

"Forgive me."

\--

Lore awakened not to the neglectible blaring of the klaxons he and Data had been dismissing since they overtook the ship, but to a new urgency that the computer seemed intent on expressing.

The voice was not clear at first. Or, maybe, he thought he was dreaming.

"..epeat... Warning... Self destruct mechanism activated... please proceed to the nearest escape p..."

" _What?_ " He flung the comforter of off him and jumped out of Data's bed, running to the console in the laboratory. He activated the intercom.

"...--is is not a drill... Attention all hands..."

Before he said anything, his brother's voice came in over the speaker.

_"Lore. Are you awake?"_

_"I am_ now; _fuck! What is going_ on?"

_"Come down to cargo bay three, immediately."_

_"Alright, alright!"_ He was already balancing on one foot, trying to put the other through a pair of his brother's trousers.

\--

Lore made good time, considering the fact that he had bothered to put some clothes on at all. Data had not expected him to come bounding down the corridors that quickly.

"Computer," Data said from his place against the aft wall, near a bundle of hanging wires. Sparks were erupting from nearly every crevice. 

_"Seal door!"_

Lore whirled around and watched the door close, never to be opened again. He turned back around to his brother, staring at him in disbelief.

Data kept his face blank in response, but returned the stare.

_"Door sealed. Last command of the Enterprise--"_

"No. _No._ " Lore bolted for the nearest interface. His fingers moved across the panel like lightning, trying to find a way to override the door lock code, the self-destruct sequence, _anything._ "Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck--"

_"Commands of any kind are no longer taken from your present lo--"_

"FUCK!"

Lore turned on his brother, his yellow eyes radiating a disturbing mixture of fear and hatred. "You. You did this. On _purpose._ "

"Yes, I did, Lore." Data's usual tone was being blocked out by the critical sound of the klaxons, increasing in volume with each minute.

_"Fifteen minutes to detonation. Please proceed to the nearest escape pod..."_

Lore scanned the room for something, _anything_ he could use as a weapon, despite the fact that he knew they had used this bay to dispose of the human corpses--thus, everything in here would have been thrown out into space several hundred light-years back. He stared at the emptiness beyond the emergency bulkhead that was in place at the large cargo bay hatch.

"Open the force-field, Data. Please."

"... I am afraid I cannot, Lore."

"I don't care if I have to float around in space for the next three hundred years; _open the goddamn door_ and let me out.

The closest thing to sympathy washed over Data's face. "Even if I wanted to, brother," he began, gently, "I have programmed the computer to take one final order from the cargo bay before its destruction. I cannot give it any more orders."

For the first time in weeks, Data did not move or flinch as the barrage of fists and elbows and blows rained down on him. When Lore's rage seemed insatiable, he finally abandoned the assault and sank to his hands and knees. Wiping gold fluid from his bruised lips, Data effortlessly pulled himself to his feet and approached Lore uncautiously by kneeling down and running a soft hand through his hair.

"... I am sorry, Lore."

" _Fuck,_ Data!" Lore exploded as he threw his head up to meet Data's eyes, gold fluid pouring from his own. The look in his brother's irises--petrified, infuriated, _hunted_ \--was enough to make him flinch. 

"We're going to _die_ here!"

"Yes, brother." His voice was near silence. Panels burst and the computer informed them that any form of environmental control or life support had expired.

_"Destruction is imminent in T-minus nine minutes thirty-six seconds..."_

"I loved you." 

The pain in Lore's hoarse voice was excrutiating. Data wondered if there was any way, in the short time he had left, to convincingly project to Lore that his feelings were identical.

"I know."

_"... minus fifty-two seconds..."_

_Better make it quick._

"When you first came aboard the _Enterprise_ ," Data began, his voice unchanging and soft beneath the cracking of the ship's exterior, "You told me several times that 'we belong together.' And once I realized that statement to be true, I concurrently made my decision--"

They were interrupted by a loud explosion over their heads, pieces of duranium raining down in them. They didn't notice or care.

"--to die with you."

Lore searched his databanks for anything. There was no possible conclusion; not even anything appropriate left to say. As the ship tore itself in two, still traveling at warp eight, both androids rose to stand their full heights. Data placed a hand at Lore's cheek in a meek attempt at comforting him.

"I'm scared," he whispered. A thumb swept across his face, taking with it the metallic tears.

Data delivered Lore his masterpiece; the most human smile he could muster after almost thirty years of failure.

"As am I."

It was one situation where Data had decided that thinking was a waste of time. He crushed his brother's lips beneath his own, sucking at his tongue as though one more second of life could be salvaged by it. Lore became consumed by it as well, attaching himself to Data as though he were the _deux ex machina_ that would save them. Eventually, it was Data who had forced his brother back onto the deck's hard graving, hands frantic and powerful as he tore at his clothes.

Lore licked his lips, desperate and anxious. Needing it. He had never felt so vulnerable in his short life, but he felt comfort in finally being able to say it.

_"Four minutes remaining--"_

_I need this. I needed you._

With one push, it was gone: the envy, the self-loathing, the ambition, the fear; all of it dissipated from Lore's mind as he cried out, feeling Data press into his core. Heat consumed them, and neither could tell its source--to Data, it came from their coupling and radiated, so bright and hot that it consumed the ship.

_"Two minutes--"_

_You wanted me._

\--hot lips and a smooth tongue against chest. Lore's teeth sank into his brother's shoulder as the pain engrossed and captivated him--

 _I_ had _you._

_\--irty seconds until--_

\--burned, together, fused. Yellow eyes searing flesh. Final eruption of sparks and brilliance. 

They became complete.

_It's just the stars watching now, brother._

_Make it a good show._

_I hope I did not disappoint._

**Author's Note:**

> There is so much more that I could have done with this story, but I was young, immature, and actually too busy (read: lazy) to flesh out the story and tackle any issues with the story. A rewrite is definitely overdue, as soon as I figure out how to put myself back into the dark, terrifying place that once allowed me to write shit like this. :)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Static](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4251060) by [Gorrlaus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gorrlaus/pseuds/Gorrlaus)




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